The Legacy of the Immigrant Church

First of all, like the new look of the site? A good friend of mine said that the previous iteration looked “like crap,” which then got me into a competitive spirit: I’ll show him! … of course, in the most humble way possible. So, a few weeks later — what do you think?

Now, onto the meat of why I’m writing: A few months ago, we hosted a series of 8-minute talks at the Urbana 12 Pan Asian North American (PANA) Lounge. Twenty-four leaders from the church, academic and parachurch gave their big idea — and we had a great time. But now with some months’ perspective, I think, now, that we may have been onto something bigger than we thought: we may have created the only online repository of Asian American Christian thought ever captured on video. (Before you hate, let me know if that’s not true!)

I wish I can take all the credit for coming up with that idea. But I can’t.

Now, I wasn’t intending on introducing him to you on this blog. But I just had a chance to review his PANA talk, and it’s amazing. (The staff he supervises call his drops of wisdom — “Ho Bombs.”) I really could’ve put any video from the PANA Lounge “repository” up on this site, but perhaps this can be a gateway video to the others. (Don’t I sound like a dealer or a pusher? Still, you can find the entire list here — and we’re still posting more.)

He counters the prevailing wisdom that the church is in decline, and asks us to look elsewhere for where the Kingdom may abound. In it, I think helps us redeem the legacy of the immigrant church — that they did their job, and now it’s time to do ours.